Monday, July 16, 2012

I don't know about any of you other writers, but the hardest part of my "writing day" is 1. getting to that ending, that END OF STORY, and 2. rummaging back through the final piece and editing/proofreading it, trying to polish it to the best of my biased ability.

I finished up a little over 19k word Fantasy short story end of June. The publisher I was submitting it to, well, their deadline was June 30th. As I wasn't going to JUST SEND it to the publisher without doing a re-read and some polishing first, I humbled requested from the publisher a little more time. I would not typically do this. This is not a good practice, and I am sure most publishers when they say THAT'S IT, that's it. But as everyone is human (hopefully LOL), sometimes you just have to go a little crazy and ASK. The worst they can say is NO, right? The best thing they can say is YES...NOW GETTER DONE!!

I was lucky enough to already have worked with this particular editor/publisher, asked nicely for a bit more time, and fortunately they granted me an extension to get my work piece into them.

As the 4th of July holiday came into play, and I did things with the family (a mini-vacation time), and then had to go out on the road the following week (back to work), it took me about two weeks to complete the re-reading and editing/proofing of my short story. I finally sent the publisher the piece, stating again I know I was behind the eight ball, and if they took it this late in the submission deadline game, I am thankful, and if not, again, I thanked them for the opportunity.

As I have recently submitted the work piece, I have not gotten a response yet either YAY or NAY to submitting it late, or if it just won't work for their publication.

I am not the best editor when it comes to my own work. The story is in my head. I can see it, feel it, smell it, taste it...and I put all that hopefully successfully down on paper I get a pretty good idea by its ending on what might have to be gone back to and smoothed out, what kinks might have to be worked out. Being perfectly grammatically correct, yeah, I try to smooth out all that as much as possible also before I consider the piece submittable. As mentioned, I do as much as I can to make it a polished piece, but a set of fresh eyes (normally an editor outside my meager self) always help as I admit to not sleeping with my Strunck & White religiously.

What I am saying here is, when you are GETTING IT DONE, stay positive, stay focused. If you need to have a bit more time to complete your masterpiece, sometimes, if you are really committed to getting something to that particular publisher, communicate, correspond with them. Like I said, the worst they can say is NOPE. SORRY. You should also give them a solid target date if you are going to be late.

Get through that final polishing stage. Stick to it. Get it done, even if you have to read bits and pieces throughout your busy day. (I will read through and edit my material, then highlight with red font the last paragraph I left off on so it is easy to come back to later.)

Feel free to give me your comments on FINISHING THE JOB and the EDITING PROCESS.

Saturday, July 7, 2012

Born of darkness and forced from the
world, the creatures of myth, legend, and nightmare have long called the
shadows home. Now, with the cruel touch of the sun a fading memory, they’ve
returned to claim their rightful place amidst humanity; as its masters.

Fading
Light: An Anthology of the Monstrous is due out September 2012. It is an anthology with a slew of great writers/authors, including last but not least (if you look at the list of stories and authors below) yours truly. Edited by the talented Tim Marquitz, and from what I have seen/read of some of the tales within, it is going to be awesome.

My tale, entitled FINAL RIGHTS, takes place in a near-future Grand Rapids, Michigan, roughly about the year 2075.

A little synopsis of FINAL RIGHTS...

"The world has been cast in the chill embrace of a Nuclear
Winter and slowly withers towards its dreary demise. The once-glorious daylight
hours have turned to a perpetual dusk and the last bastions
of humanity hold beneath the brightly-lit, but slowly
dying vestiges of the larger cities. On the perimeters
of the cloud-cloaked countryside, where light succumbs to deep shadow, tattered and mutated beasts hungrily wait for the brilliance of
the civilized world to wink out."

Below is the list of talent and short story titles that will be within the anthology.

About Me

I am a family man first. And spend a bit of time penning tales of sword & sorcery, or big, shootem' up pseudo-military fiction based in and around my old hometown of Grand Rapids, Michigan...and even, on occasion, get and have gotten written pieces published.

I enjoy bourbon whiskey, model railroading, reading in the genres in which I write (and sometimes stepping outside those genres) and breathing and staying on this side of the dirt for now.